in their manner, cutting off his hands and then his feet. Being unable to make him cry out or groan, they pronounced him a stout man. A party of Pequods also ambushed three men, who had been sent to keep a house about two miles from the fort; and two were taken prisoners, while the other cut his way through the enemy, sword in hand. The fort itself was soon so closely pressed by the Indians, that the men dared not venture beyond the reach of the guns. The neighbouring houses and haystacks were burned, and the cattle sometimes came in with arrows sticking in them.

This state of things lasted, with little intermission, through the winter; and when the spring came and vessels began to sail, they were so closely watched and so much threatened by the savages, that navigation was attended with great danger. The commander of the fort, Lieutenant Gardiner, was once waylaid, with ten or twelve of his men, on returning from the marshes which he had gone to burn over. The path lay then, as it does now, along a narrow piece of dry land, just beyond which the savages rose and killed three of the Englishmen, wounding the lieutenant and another, and closely pursued them to the fort. The latter died the next day. The Indians thus became more imboldened; and they would sometimes come in boats as near as they dared, and challenge the men to come out and fight, saying they would kill them "all one flies," and imitating the dying groans and pious exclamations of those whom they had tortured.

A shallop, on its way down the river a short time after, was captured by a number of canoes;

56

WAR ON THE PEQUODS PROPOSED.

[1637.

and the crew, having been killed, were cut and mangled in a shocking manner, and then hung on trees by the water-side, that they might be seen by their countrymen. What painful impressions would such a sight have made at the present day! How doubly distressing must have been the feelings excited in the state of things which then existed, when the people were few, most of them known to each other, scattered in feeble settlements, and in constant dread of the Indians! The cruelties practised by the Indians in their treatment of their captives greatly increased the dread of the whites. Sometimes they cut great gashes in their flesh, and filled them with hot embers and burning coals; sometimes they mangled and mutilated them alive, or burned them to death with a slow fire; and, when they uttered cries or prayers, they would imitate, insult, and ridicule them.

When the court next met, on the 21st of Feb. ruary, they addressed letters to Massachusetts, proposing prompt and severe measures against the Pequods. They complained that Captain Endicott's expedition had done more harm than good, by exasperating their enemies rather than terrifying or enfeebling them; and offered to send forces to join those of Massachusetts, and invade the Pequod country.

It was at this same court determined, that the name of Newtown should be changed to Hartford (after the birthplace of the Rev. Mr. Stone, who was a native of Hartford in England), and that of Watertown to Wethersfield. Not long after, the name of Dorchester was changed to Windsor. These names remain to the present day.

In the following March a re-enforcement of twenty men was sent to Saybrook fort, under Captain Mason; and after that the Pequods gave the place no more trouble. Captain Mason soon returned, being relieved by Captain Underhill and twenty men from Massachusetts. In April, however, a number of Indians laid an ambush at Wethersfield, and surprised some of the inhabitants on their way to the fields, killing six men and three women, and taking captive two girls. They also killed about twenty cows, and did other injuries.

CHAPTER VI.

The Crops fall short.-The Court determine on a War with the Pequods. The troops embark, under the command of Captain Mason.-Uncas joins them.-An Indian captured and tortured by the Mohegans.-The expedition delayed at Saybrook by contrary Winds.-Differences of Opinion reconciled.-They sail for Narraganset.-Council with Miantonimoh.-They march into the Pequod Country, guided by Wequash.-Capture and burning of Sassacus's Fort and Village.-They reembark, and return to Saybrook.

THUS the colonists continued to suffer under a variety of calamities; but they persevered, under a trust in God, whose service they so highly valued; and the prosperity which crowned their ef forts to secure religious freedom to their posterity is a standing proof that they did not labour nor trust in vain. The want of good ploughs and other farming utensils caused the crops to be small; and, while the coarse grass which then grew in

58 EXPEDITION AGAINST THE PEQUODS. [1637.

their meadows was poor, they were unable to make their hay, as well as to till their ground in the best manner. So many cattle died for want, that a good cow was not to be bought for less than thirty shill. ings, while Indian corn was worth five shillings a bushel, and every other necessary bore a corresponding price.

On the 1st of May a court met at Hartford, composed of Messrs. Ludlow, Welles, Swain, Steele, Phelps, and Ward, magistrates, and Messrs. Whiting, Webster, Williams, Hull, Chaplin, Talcott, Geffords, Mitchell, and Sherman, committees. They resolved on war against the Pequods, to be carried on by the three towns. Hartford was required to furnish forty-two men, Windsor thirty, and Wethersfield eighteen; and supplies were voted for this little army of ninety men. The people exerted themselves to favour the enterprise. When the news reached Massachusetts and Plymouth, their governments ordered troops to co-operate: the former two hundred men, the latter forty; and Captain Patrick set out immediately, with forty soldiers, to join the Connecticut troops as soon as possible.

On the 10th of May, Captain Mason embarked his troops in a pink, a pinnace, and a shallop, and sailed for Saybrook. He had been joined by seventy Mohegans from the place now called Norwich, under the command of their sachem, Uncas. Mason was an experienced officer, having been bred to arms in Europe. Mr. Stone accompanied the expedition as chaplain; and the embarcation at Hartford was attended with a solemn religious service performed on the shore. The water being

low, the vessels several times got aground; and delays occurred, which rendered the Mohegans so impatient, that they requested to be set on shore at a little distance above Saybrook fort. On their way thither by land they encountered a party of about forty Pequods, of whom they killed seven and took one prisoner. The captive was recognised as an Indian who had lived in the fort, where he had been kindly treated, and learned English, but had secretly acted as a spy, and informed Sassacus of what he saw. He had been present at the death of all the English killed at Saybrook. The Mohegans insisted on taking his life in their cus tomary manner, and the English did not interfere, as they ought to have done on every principle of humanity and religion. The savages therefore made a fire, tore or cut him limb from limb, and ate his flesh with shouts and dancing, burning what remained of their inhuman banquet.

The vessels were detained by contrary winds till Friday. There was also a difference of opinion with respect to the best manner of proceeding: the under officers generally wishing to obey instructions by landing in Pequod harbour, while Mason preferred to avoid the numerous Indians who he had learned were assembled there, with sixteen muskets among their other arms, and to proceed to Narraganset, whence he might approach their forts by an unguarded route, and where they might be joined by recruits. Mason had received much information about the Pequods from the two girls they had captured at Wethersfield, whom the Dutch had just ransomed. Such was the religious character of the Connecticut people in those days,